KSA warns against driving ban breach

Saudi Arabia has strongly warned its women against any move which violates the kingdom’s controversial ban on female driving.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said it will “strictly implement” measures against anyone who “contributes in any manner or by any acts, towards providing violators with the opportunity to undermine the social cohesion.”

The warning comes amid a renewed right-to-drive campaign to challenge a law that prevents women from driving in the kingdom.

Activists have encouraged Saudi women to post on social websites pictures of themselves behind the wheel.

Several women took the wheel last year on October 26 in defiance of the driving ban in the kingdom.

More than 2,700 people have already signed an online petition to support women’s driving rights in the Arab country.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are prohibited from driving. The medieval ban is a religious fatwa imposed by the country’s Wahhabi clerics. If women get behind the wheel in the kingdom, they may be arrested, sent to court and even flogged.

Saudi authorities have defied calls by international rights groups to end what has been described as its violation of women’s rights.

SSM/HMV/SS